The NPR story on it is a little more digestible:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...ryId=130731888
And the actual calculator:
http://endurancecalculator.com/
I'm somewhat skeptical of this calculator, though... unless I put in an elite-level finishing time, it's telling me I don't need to consume any calories during the event. Hmmmm...
The calculator's estimate for the VO2Max might be part of the issue... my running VO2Max is only about average, but my resting heart rate is pretty low, and that seems to be a key variable for this calculator's VO2Max estimate.